Abstract:
The management of water implies protection of quality and quantity of the resources, its allocation in a manner that meets the objectives of the society and the improvement in the productivity and efficiency of the system. Amongst the several management strategies employed to meet these objectives conjunctive use of water resources is perhaps one of the most important practice. The impact of conjunctive use of surface and ground water in the Ghaggar-Yamuna basin of Haryana state is presented.
Development of ground water through public deep tubewells and the farmers owned and operated shallow tubewells in the fresh water zone of the basin improved dependability and adequacy of the water supply system. It also controlled the water table and helped in reclamation of alkali lands. Development of ground water in saline zone through skimming wells/shallow tubewells and horizontal sub-surface drainage on limited scale has also given encouraging results.
Further improvement in performance of irrigated agriculture is possible through properrain water management in the fresh water zone and better integration of poor quality ground water with canal water in the saline zone. Appropriate systems of rain water management and conjunctive of canal and saline water could be developed through application of systems analysis.
